Effective Meetings

Effective Meetings Tony Del Busso December 14th, 2006

Why Have Meetings? • Provide Periodic Status on Projects • Resolve an Issue • Bring a Group to Consensus • Communicate Information to Participant(s)

Three Phases of Meetings • Planning of the Meeting • Conducting the Meeting • Followup After the Meeting

Planning the Meeting • Make sure the meeting is needed • Ensure the specific goal(s) of the meeting • Ensure the appropriate participation for the meeting • If possible, schedule the meeting on online scheduling (ie. Lotus Notes) not just email requests for the meeting • Provide room and conference number information • Try to keep the meeting to 1 hour (1.5 at a maximum) • Provide an Agenda / Meeting Structure / Previous Tasks / To Do Lists • Consistent with Meeting Goals • Approximate time to spend on each section • Familiarize yourself with the meeting content prior to the meeting • Resolve / Followup on as many issues prior to the meeting as possible to eliminate additional meeting discussion.

Recurring Meetings • Try to ensure consistency in: • Time and Day of the meeting • Conference Number Information • Room Information • Schedule of Meeting Minutes Distribution • Format of the Meeting (with modification for addressing particular issues) • Try to have a backup / Co-chair if possible • If a meeting is cancelled, describe reason to ensure participants don’t confuse the cancellation as a permanent cancellation

Conducting the Meeting • Start and End on-time • 15-20 minutes before the end of the meeting, announce time left • Provide a quick summary of the agenda • Stick to the Agenda, but allow conversations to vet out any additional issues, but use judgement in how far from the issue to stray. • Reviewing issues • New: Assign a responsible person to spearhead the task, a due date and what constitutes completion of the item • Existing: Ensure the meeting minutes reflect past meeting’s action item, the person responsible and (if possible) updated status of the item from last meeting. Keep a list of what happened on this issue from meeting to meeting. • Resolved Isssues • Keep resolved issues on the minutes for 1 meeting in the future to ensure closure of the issue and communications of the closure.

After / Between Meetings • Provide Meeting Minutes as close to after the meeting as possible. • Provide a copy of the meeting minutes / agenda with a reminder for the next meeting (morning of, if possible) • Followup on issues to get updated status before the meeting if possible • Add any additional items to the agenda that have arisen from the prior week. • Ensure task responsible parties will attend any followup meetings. • Conduct meeting de-briefings to determine if anything can be changed to make the meeting more effective.

Effective Meetings • Questions / Comments?

Effective Meetings